For Taiwanese film director Chang Tso-chi (
At the moment, life is good for Chang. His latest film, Darkness and Light, just picked up three major prizes at the recently-concluded Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), and the news made front page headlines around Taiwan.
Not expecting to win any prizes, Chang flew back from Tokyo to Taipei before the TIFF awards ceremony. He found out he won on the Internet.
PHOTO: TAI LI-AN
But while Chang is happy about the Tokyo awards and the publicity the news has generated in film circles around the world, he is still worried about the debt he incurred in making Darkness and Light. The still-unreleased film cost around NT$16 million, with the government chipping in NT$10 million as a grant. Chang finished the movie last year, but has yet to find a distributor for it. The TIFF awards should help, he said. And the prize money should help clear some of his outstanding debts, he added.
"I hope the `light' in the film can also bring light to Taiwan's local film market," Chang said.
The TIFF awards mark the first time that a Taiwanese director has won three prizes at the Tokyo film festival, which began in 1987.
On Saturday, Chang was awarded the Asian Special Prize, a US$9,432 prize specifically for Asian films. On Sunday, he was awarded the the festival's top prize -- the US$94,000 Tokyo Grand Prix -- and the TIFF best director prize.
The Government Information Office, which handles funding and subsidies for Taiwanese films, also announced a special award of NT$2 million in recognition of Chang's work. In all, the Tokyo Film Festival presented Chang with a nice bonus -- a total of around NT$4 million.
Participating in overseas film festivals before domestic distribution -- in hopes of coming back with prestigious awards -- has become a pattern in the promotion of Taiwanese films, including movies by Hou Hsiao-hsian (
But according to Chang, this was not his goal in Tokyo.
"I always consider my films to be commercial," Chang said.
"We don't have the funds to find film distributors to sell our movies. This is the only way we could think of," said Lu Shi-yuan (
Taiwan's film industry has been in decline over the past 10 years, with less than 20 domestic films made in the last two years, according to industry sources.
Darkness and Light is set in a massage center run by blind people, where a young woman lives with her blind parents and a retarded brother. The film recounts the woman's love affair with a young man from a neighborhood gang.
Chang, who has been called a great storyteller by critics, likes to focus his films on people who have been marginalized by society.
Chang said that he has already written the script for his next film, to be titled King of the Betel Nut Stands. The movie will focus on the people who work in the betel nut "industry," Chang said.
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